The Latest Edition in My Correction Column for New York Times Editorials

From my piece Friday on Shaker Aamer: "Aamer was 'cleared for transfer,' after all, and that translates in a lot of people's minds and in a lot of news stories to 'cleared,' which translates in turn in a lot of people's minds to 'innocent.'"

In my capacity as the Times editorial board's unpaid fact checker on national security legal matters, I feel obliged to point out that, as the paper's estimable news staff correctly reported, Mr. Aamer was cleared for transfer in 2009, not 2007: "When the Obama administration took office in 2009, it convened a six-agency task force to review the remaining detainees. It unanimously recommended Mr. Aamer’s transfer."

Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books and is co-chair of the Hoover Institution's Working Group on National Security, Technology, and Law.